No charges for police who fatally shot Andrew Brown: North Carolina prosecutor
No criminal charges will be filed against the deputies who fatally shot unarmed Andrew Brown, a Black man, outside his home last month in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, a prosecutor says.
Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble said Tuesday that he had found no wrongdoing by the deputies in spite of calls for prosecution by lawyers for Brown's family, who described his death as an execution.
Brown was shot in the back by sheriff's deputies serving a drug-related search warrant on April 21 in Elizabeth City, a riverfront community where just over half of the nearly 18,000 residents are Black.
"Mr. Brown's death, while tragic, was justified because Mr. Brown's actions caused three deputies to reasonably believe it was necessary to use deadly force to protect themselves and others," Womble said.
Womble noted Brown "recklessly" drove at the officers on scene while trying to flee arrest.
The three deputies will also be reinstated and retrained, Pasquotank Sheriff Tommy Wooten said Tuesday.
Wooten, however, added disciplinary action would be taken against the deputies.
"While the district attorney concluded that no criminal law was violated, this was a terrible and tragic outcome, and we could do better," Wooten said.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Crump and other lawyers, who are representing Brown's family, issued a joint statement, decrying what they called "Womble's attempt to whitewash this unjustified killing."
The lawyers said the deputies' actions were "unequivocally unjustified," adding Brown was not armed and did not drive toward deputies or pose a threat.
At a news briefing, Womble showed video taken from the body-worn cameras of the sheriff's deputies as they tried to arrest Brown.
However, Brown family lawyers demanded that a North Carolina court allow the release of all videos.
Following Womble’s announcement, residents and community members marched in the streets of Elizabeth City Tuesday night.
“As expected, no charges for Andrew Brown,” protesters yelled out as they marched
Brown’s shooting took place a day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, ending a highly-publicized trial that put a national spotlight on police violence against Black people in the US.
The incidents of violence targeted at people of color in the US have seen an alarming surge in recent years, which many blame on former US president Donald Trump's racist rhetoric.
The organized violence has not only continued under the new administration, but has become worse, say observers.
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